At Stanford University, a team of researchers has created an artificial intelligence-based player called the Vid2Player. The Vid2Player is capable of generating startlingly realistic tennis matches. Real professional players are featured in Vid2Player.
The researchers wrote a paper describing their work of Vid2Player. They have uploaded this paper to the arXiv preprint server. A YouTube video demonstrating their player has also been uploaded. A lot of time and effort is taken by video game companies to make the games look realistic. To this far the video game companies found it tough while they try to depict human beings.
The researchers have taken a different approach to the task in this new effort. The researchers used sprites instead of trying to create human-looking characters from scratch. Sprites are characters based on videos of real people. Using artificial intelligence, sprites are pushed into action to mimic the ways human moves while playing tennis with the help of a computer.
AI systems are trained by the researchers using video of real tennis professionals performing. Creation of sprites involved imagery which was provided by the footage. As a result of the effort, the real professional tennis players were depicted by an interactive player. Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal included the real professional tennis players who are in action.
One of the most important things about the simulated gameplay is that it is virtually indistinguishable from a televised tennis match. The Vid2Player is interactive and is capable of replaying actual matches. The course of the match can be changed by the user as it unfolds. When a ball comes over the net, users can change the way how the player reacts. The user can change the player’s play in general.
The users can decide whether to hit backhand or forehand and also possible to choose which part of the opposite side of the court to aim for. The course of a real match can also slightly have altered by allowing a shot that in reality was out of bounds to land magically inside the line. Players from different eras can also compete and are allowed by the system. The lighting and clothing can be adjusted by the AI software if the video is used from multiple matches.
The AI software teaches the sprites on how to play. The most likely actions of the real player are mimicked by the actions of the sprites. For an instance, consider a match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nader. The players will move the way the real players move and take shots that the real players would make. They will play at a kind of high level the viewers expect them to be.
